In America, there is this perception that being a member of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) culture is wrong. A member of that culture is considered less human simply by being a member of that group. It is absurd to think that people in microculture are stereotyped simply because they like or are in a relationship with someone of the same gender. The American public has never accepted new cultural things like air conditioning, electronic banking, electricity or polyester and now there is a trend towards accepting gay culture. It is also absurd that a member of the LGBT culture would be harassed or discriminated against in the workplace by their superiors or possibly their own colleagues. James Neulip defines stereotype as “generally referring to membership in social categories such as gender, race”. , age, or occupation – which are thought to be associated with certain traits and behaviors” (182). Stereotypes are widely varying principles, ideas and/or opinions that are based on an individual's experience and are often caused by illogical thinking. Stereotypes, for us, are useful because we like to organize our thoughts by organizing and grouping our thoughts, which makes thinking effective for us. Stereotypes attempt to clear up obscurities that a person may have, allowing them to conclude whether or not a person is in that culture or out of that culture. Humans want to understand where they stand in relation to others. The expected subtleties of our culture or any other microculture, this effective way of evaluating people and situations is based on our prior familiarities and notions we may already believe. The article written by Blashill and Powlishta titled "Gay Stereotypes: The Use of Orientation as ...... middle of paper ......ctionary.com. Retrieved March 16, 2014 from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/catch-22?s=tCloar, C. (2009). Through Price Waterhouse's Looking Glass: Domination and Oppression Revealed. USFL Rev., 43, 703-979. Corporate Equality Index 2014. (nd). Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved March 18, 2014 from http://www.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/c ei_2014_full_report_rev7.pdfHeternormativity. Reference.com. Np, and Web. March 17, 2014. Neuliep, J.W. (2012). The perceptual context. Intercultural communication: A contextual approach (5th ed., p. 182). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Obama, B. (November 3, 2013). Congress must pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 18, 2014 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barack-obama/enda-congress_b_4209115.html